In 1997 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognized that the levees were not strong enough to sustain anything higher than a category 3 hurricane. From MSN.com: "The network that was supposed to protect the below-sea-level city from flooding was built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, the Army Corps of Engineers said. It was overwhelmed when Katrina’s winds and storm surge came ashore a week ago as a Category 4 storm."
Why was this? Many say that it was Bush's budget cuts that caused the levees to remain in their unacceptable state. However, Bush could have sent the entire U.S. budget to New Orleans to strengthen the levees, but all that money can't go against a court order not to improve them. That's right: A court order!
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was taken to court in 1997 by the Sierra Club to prevent the planned improvements to the levee as it would harm the natural habitat of the endangered black bear.
Even the Mississippi Levee Board (which has jurisdiction along the Mississippi River, not just in Mississippi) has been pushing for this! Interestingly, their motto is "Where people come first." I suppose, based on the Sierra Clubs actions theirs would be "Where people come in a close third, just after the animals and plants."
There was a similar situation in California in 1991 where a planned improvement to a levee was delayed because of an ordered study in the effects of the proposed improvements on the Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle. They were forced to plant 80 acres of new Elderberry bushes (in which the beetle lives) before they could begin the work on the levee. In the mean time, the levee broke causing 3 deaths and forcing 32,000 people to flee from their homes. The 80 acres of new bushes were also destroyed.
You may remember that there were reporters standing on the street after the storm, there had been minimal deaths and there was some surface damage to many buildings. Then the levee broke! Then the flooding came in! Then the looting began! Then people started dying! If the levees had been fixed, if the U.S. Corps of Engineers had been allowed to fix them in 1997, this disaster would have been 200% less destructive, less people dead, less opportunities for politicians to use this tragedy for their hate filled, divisive rhetoric!
Please don't misunderstand me. I have lots of other gripes regarding this situation, I just hadn't heard about the poor black bear that so many have now died to save!
And this is just my opinion!
4 comments:
I still think President Bush should have flown down there and used his superstrength to hold the water back.
That's awesome! There was an article I read called "Bush used godlike powers to destroy New Orleans." by Taylor Armerding. His premise is that God is getting a break from the "if God is so good..." questions because everyone is blaming Bush!
I'm just amused at the number of people being "blamed" for a NATURAL DISASTER!! Hello!! Even without a belief in God, isn't "nature" to blame for a "natural" disaster!! I think the real problem is that everyone in America wants to believe that we are safe, and that someone somewhere has devised a plan, or should have, to keep us safe. For instance, "we're America, we can't have a flood destroy a city" and "this is America, we can't have children dying from mosquito bites" and "we're America, we can eliminate the possibility of a drunk driver being behind the wheel" and the list goes on and on. Some things we seem to have marginal control over - ie. drunk drivers, but even the insurance companies call hurricanes "acts of God" and I don't know what to call dying from a disease-infected mosquito- but I'm certain we're all going to die of something and we just can't prevent it. So, in short, who care's who's to blame. We're all just trying here, and while some of us maybe should be trying a little harder because we've been elected or hired to do so, we all need to come to grips with the thought that, in truth, we're not as safe as we think we are.
let's see...let black bears live or destruction of a historic American city? hmmm, give me a minute to think that one over...
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